David's Bucket

Several weeks ago, I shared a post entitled, “My own experience with getting UNstuck,” and in the midst of that story, I promised this follow up post.

As I shared in my message last weekend, one of the key places in my life where I had been stuck in my life for many years was my eating habits and choices. Coupled with those choices, several years ago, I discovered that I had a severe cholesterol problem. My doctor told me that I was a prime candidate for the mid-40 year old heartache that kills you quick.

You might notice in that previous statement the words, “several years ago.” You would think hearing words like that from the doctor would fix you quick, but for years I continued to fail.

After six months, I’m finally heading in the right direction. I am not yet where I want to be, and most importantly, I am not at the point of maintaining the progress that I’ve made, but the past six months have increased my confidence that I’ve gone through something more than a short term adjustment. The goal is always life long change.

And in my experience, the critical component of life long change is learning. Here’s what the last six months have taught me.

The most important part of healthy living is what you put into your body.
I shared in my earlier reflections that this was something that I simply stumbled upon. I decided in the very beginning to focus exclusively on what I was eating rather than trying to tackle a new diet and an increased activity level at the same time. Honestly, it was probably more a product of my own laziness, but what I learned was that the most critical component of healthy living is what goes into your body. I’ll share again something I heard from a trainer on a podcast a few weeks ago.

“A healthy lifestyle is 80% diet and only 20% activity. If you don’t get control of the diet, you’re wasting away 80% of your success”

This was a huge lesson for me, and I credit it with really powering me to a point that six months ago did not seem achievable in my mind. Every engine requires the right fuel. If you want to make a change, start with what goes into your machine.

Future success has no relationship to past failures.
Every day is a new day. Every experience is a brand new experience. Every goal we set, and every step we take towards achieving that goal is a brand new step. What is done is done. I have complete control over whether my past failure receives any permission to influence my future success. Like most, I had failed at changing this part of my life numerous times, and every time that happened, it became a little bit easier to believe that change would never come… Why? Because I gave failure permission to influence my future, and in this instance, I had to intentionally remove that consent from my mind. [In case you're interested, this is the focus for the message this weekend.]

Discipline creates discipline.
This was another shocker to me. I really didn’t expect this, but when you look at Newton’s laws of physics, we again see a transferrable principle. Picture a large boulder that gets dislodged from the side of a cliff and the speed that is generated when a large object that is stuck begins to get moving again. It begins to pick up a head of steam. I won’t go into too much detail here except to say that I set out to change one area of my life that was “stuck” and in doing so, I actually was able to dislodge several areas of my life. What’s interesting to me about that is that I really wasn’t even focused on those other areas at all, but a new “discipline” in my life generated some great momentum for change. By focusing on the one area, I actually influenced several areas of my life in a real positive way.

Small wins fuel larger ones.
I actually wrote about this in February when I was just getting started. You can see the full post here, but in that post I talked about my two best friends, the scale and the notches on my belt. Here’s how I described why I loved these two friends so much…

Why do I love them so much? Because they reveal progress.

They help me to quantify and celebrate the work that I’ve done.

They honor my sacrifice.

They recognize my struggle, and they pat me on the back by confirming my best hopes and allowing me the opportunity to savor for a brief moment every step in the right direction. When I step on the scale and realize my weight has dropped 1/2 a pound or a full pound, I’m that much more motivated for the day ahead. When I recognize that change, I hear words that ring in my ear that I love to hear.

“I can do this.”

As I read that today I’m reminded of the fact that at that time I had only dropped 13 pounds. And I also wrote at the time that my goal was only to lose 12 more. 25 pounds, total. This morning, I crossed 40. Here’s the principle… When you’re seeking to bring change in your life, you have to identify and celebrate the small wins because they create the energy that fuels the larger ones.

The potential impact is more than you’re imagining it to be.
This last one is the main reason I’m doing a series on this topic. In some ways, it’s simply restating the earlier claim that “discipline creates discipline,” but I think it’s worth saying a little differently. Life is a gift of God. That’s one of the confessions of my faith. Every moment of my life is both a gift and a responsibility. As a follower of Jesus, I believe that God has placed a calling on my life to have a impact on God’s world in such a way that “his Kingdom is truly coming” into the world in which I live each day. If you share that conviction with me, let me say this…

I don’t think we should be ashamed of that. It would be a mistake to minimize that.

We were designed to have an impact, and the true implications of getting my life UNstuck is something much more meaningful to me than the person I see in the mirror now.

The true implications are that I see my life in a whole new light.

I see my future in a whole new way.

I see God’s dreams for my life in a whole new way.

This is the biggest “take home” for me.

Getting UNstuck has released God’s dreams in my life. I hope and pray he does the same for you.

At the beginning of the year when I began teaching the “Living Biblically” message series, I decided that I wanted to “consecrate” those four weeks by removing something from my regular diet. If you’ve read A.J. Jacobs book, you get a sense of the very rigid restrictions he placed on himself during his “experiment” of being radically obedient to every commandment in the Bible. I could not dedicate the time necessary to go to the extremes he did [nor did I feel it was necessary] but I did want to have a sense of denying myself something that I wanted.

So I picked sweets. No candy. No cake. No chocolate.

I made two exceptions during those four week. I still had my sweet n’ low in my coffee and I had two bites of my daughter’s birthday cake. [That was her idea] The commitment happened to dovetail nicely with my regular beginning of the year desire to lose weight, and unlike previous years, I’ve actually had some success in that area in the past two months. I made the commitment during the “Living Biblically” series that I was going on the “Obvious” diet. If something was obviously bad for me, I just didn’t eat it. Remarkably, it has worked. I’m 13 pounds down, with about 12 more to go to reach where I really want to be. I love what 13 pounds means.

13 pounds means that my pants are now fitting looser.

13 pounds means my belts are one notch tighter.

13 pounds means the neck in my dress shirts is really loose.

13 pounds mean the scale reads 202 rather than 215. [that's 13, right?]

About 6 years ago, I lost almost 30 pounds to get myself down to 190, which happens to be my target this time around. Looking back on that experience and walking through the last two months has reminded me of my best friend in the process of achieving my goal of a healthier lifestyle and the reduction of my body weight. I like Multi-grain cheerios. That’s a help. Homemade popcorn with no butter and just a little bit of salt is a snack I enjoy which is pretty low fat, and suprisingly, yogurt makes a delicious breakfast, but none of those are my best friends.

My best friend is the scale. A close second in the process would be my belt and those notches that I’ve worn out in one place from years of being over my appropriate weight. Why do I love them so much? Because they reveal progress.

They help me to quantify and celebrate the work that I’ve done.

They honor my sacrifice.

They recognize my struggle, and they pat me on the back by confirming my best hopes and allowing me the opportunity to savor for a brief moment every step in the right direction. When I step on the scale and realize my weight has dropped 1/2 a pound or a full pound, I’m that much more motivated for the day ahead. When I recognize that change, I hear words that ring in my ear that I love to hear.

“I can do this.”

I need to hear that. I need to know that I’m capable of achieving what I’ve failed at many times before. I crave that reminder. It keeps me going. When I see progress, the idea of giving up gets tossed aside. I recommit. I reinvest. I double up my efforts because I recognize that the impossible might just be possible after all.

Which is why I love Paul’s words in the book of Philippians. It’s one of my favorite words of scripture, and a word that I try to take every opportunity to share.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.   Philippians 1:4-6

I wish there was a scale that could measure the development of our faith. I wish there was a quick and easy way to quantify our growth and change. I think there are certainly “signs” of it. In other letters, Paul refers to these as “the fruits of the spirit,” which are those attitudes and actions that reveal the “manifestation” or growth of God’s spirit in our lives. Here is the only problem with the fruits of the spirit, at least in my experience. Other people usually see them in us, but we often struggle to see them in ourselves.

Which is why I need Paul’s words in Philippians. Absent my own ability to properly evaluate the work of God’s spirit in my life, I need to grab hold of the promise that Paul shares that God will not abandon me and will faithfully continue the “good work” of redeeming my life and “saving” me from myself. I need to be reminded that when I don’t believe in myself, God still believes in me. I need to hold tightly to the idea that, “I can do this because God can do this. God’s promised me that.”

And along the journey, I am blessed by others who help me see the fruit of the spirit’s patient reworking of my heart. They encourage me with their insight and humble me with their evaluations of positive change in my life.

So today, if you feel like giving up, I hope you are encouraged by the idea that God has no intention of giving up on you. Today, if you feel like a failure, I hope you are encouraged by the idea that you are not alone in this journey of following in the footsteps of Christ.

And one more thing… When you see fruit in others… no matter how large or small… Tell them. Participate in what the spirit is doing in someone Else’s life by sharing with them the picture of transformation that you have seen in their life. It might make all the difference by providing the encouragement and strength to continue the journey of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ.